Real Estate Career Question

[Austin Davis]

So I decided that getting involved with real estate in a professional capacity would be very good for my education in REI. I'm looking at trying to get into either property managment or as a real estate assistant. So here's the crux of my problem, I have very little real estate experience and if you look at my resume the first two things to pop into any real estate agents head will be; he's over qualified and why is he applying ? I have a masters degree in public administration and a background in project coordinator / analyst type roles. I also have very little experience with real estate, I worked for my friends mother in high school (nearly 10 years ago) who was a real estate agent. That was mostly admin stuff, occasionally I would pull comps on the mls or input listings. I recently took a refreshers class on mls, so I'd be able to do most mls things within a few hours of being on the job. I'm also helping my best friend who's in seattle (im in tampa) with his REI business.

So my question(s) are the following? How do I overcome my lack of experience in real estate? How do I get real estate agents to take me seriously once they see I'm way over qualified? How do I  get them to see that I'm not just some dude shotgunning job applications all over the place in hopes that something will / trying to fill a resume gap until something "better" comes along?  I've thought about using a simple 1-2 paragraph introduction with my email (most the positions I'm seeing are on cg) explaining my motivation and then doing a quick elevator pitch with my top four skills (project management, social media, data analysis/excel number crunching, and cold calling experience). Thoughts?